Rock opened at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool.  It subsequently played The Library Theatre Manchester and The Oval House London in June 2008.  It starred Bette Bourne and Michael Xavier.  It was directed by Tamara Harvey and Designed by Morgan Large.


To watch a piece about the show on BBC TV news click here


To watch a documentary about the making of the show click here


‘Tim Fountain’s fascinating apparently true life play...conveys a vivid impression of the witch hunting McCarthyite times... Tamara Harvey’s sensitively nuanced production...charismatic comic performance of Bette Bourne....lends the perfect air of closeted misanthropy...Xavier; a real theatrical discovery”

Nicholas De Jongh, London Evening Standard


‘Tim Fountain’s remarkable bio-play... is theatre at its simplest and best...Fountain’s play is a compelling piece of movie history..and it reminds us that all you need are clever words and great acting to make an evening in the theatre hum.  Simple, if you know how’.

Tim Auld, Sunday Telegraph


‘Wilson is played by Bette Bourne, who crumbles better than any actor I know. It is as if he is collapsing from the inside out. Entire landslides take place on his face during the course of a single sentence. He captures Wilson's essential sharkiness ("I find out what the market wants and I deliver it") and then makes you want to take the shark home and look after it.’

Lyn Gardner, Guardian


Xavier is terrific as Hudson... Bourne is equally strong as Willson...it is a superbly written drama’

Phil Key, Liverpool Daily Post.


just how that cult of secrecy and subterfuge is put in place ... is told with a brittle, mordant wit and moving intelligence in Tim Fountain’s play.. greatly aided by two riveting performances’

Mark Shenton, The Stage.


‘This fascinating, slow burning tale has some very funny moments....Bourne is a mesmerising actor...this makes the play incredibly poignant’

Glenn Meads, Whatsonstage


Rock Hudson was the biggest screen idol in 1959s Los Angeles – the ultimate Hollywood hunk.  But his career was perpetually under threat from Confidential Magazine, every queer actor’s nemesis: and only one man stood between stardom and oblivion.

ROCK is the story of Henry Willson, the man who made a star of Rock Hudson; the man who would do anything to protect his money-spinning protégé.  It is a behind the scenes story of fame, greed and desire set in a Hollywood obsessed with star billing and the bottom line.

 

To read an interview with Bette Bourne in The Times, Click here


To read a feature on Bette in Time Out click here


To read an interview with Tim Click here

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